With all the comparisons of a NC to full slate computers it seems logical that an assessment needs to be made before purchasing either one. I purchased a NC to read e-books. I also keep several PDF documents and Excel worksheets on the 16 Gb SD card. These are for reference only I do not update or modify these while on the NC. They stay up-to-date via DropBox and it's NC App Drop2Sync. I also keep six to eight produced (Roxio Creator) video clips of family events and trips. These are managed with Movie Gallery and used to show friends and family what we have been up to recently. Finally I keep twenty five to thirty recent photos for sharing with the same audience. Photo Gallery is useless so I have been tap, tap tapping files to show photos. I understand that the developers of Movie Gallery are about to release Image Gallery and Pixie Reef has submitted it's Android App, Fish Bowl Viewer to B&N for inclusion in the App Store. If either of these Apps become available then the NC does every task I want and does it well. I use the e-mail App to "monitor" my e-mail but only reply from the NC if it seems that immediate response is appropriate. Anyway, what do you use your NC for and what Apps have you found to be useful?

For me this is nothing more than a personal entertainment device, not as much productivity that some are looking for, but more than perfect for my purposes. In order of most use:

1) reading

2) web browsing

3) game apps

4) music (a pair of headphones helps me to focus on reading )

5) news/weather

I use Pandora, radioBee (fantastic if you are familiar with Shoutcast services) and sideloaded music through the music player quite a bit.

I have downloaded Pulse, TapTu (prefer Pulse's layout but both are good) and MyCast Weather

I would love to see more streaming services, either a Barnes and Noble direct service or more 3rd party offerings in the app store, as well as more varieties of games. I do not envy the Kindle devices, I think the Nook is an excellent device, but I do envy the content.

I use my NC primarily to read. I listen to music and watch videos when I'm on my treadmill. The stock NC does everything I need it to do. I installed CM7 (running from uSD card) and after about 2 weeks I realized that I wasn't interested in most of those "cool" apps, so I went back to stock.

I use my Nook for what I call my "reading plus" experience. What I mean is while I read my favorite book, I listen to music, and sometimes I take a brief pause to check my email, and when I am in a window-less area, I check the weather outside by means of My-Cast Weather Radar. I can fight boredom and stress by playing hangman, or by spending some minutes playing "Angry birds." My reading experience is more than that thanks to the versatility of the Nook. I am looking forward to the upgrading of the Nook's speed and capacities. It will also enhance its functionality value if more apps were added to the Nook apps store. The Nook Color will never be as complete as an iPad, however, it is a good contender.

I purchased mine to read with in January. However if B&N would get on the ball and get at least a good Twitter and Facebook app I would use it for other things. I hardly ever even turn on the wifi and don't use it to surf the web much, but if I had those apps and maybe some good news and sports news apps like ESPN I would use it so much more.

While I love my Nookcolor, when it dies I will definitely look at the Kindle Fire as a replacement unless we get more of the popular apps used on other devices.

I have an n2a card for mine, so most of the time I use it as an android tablet. Funny thing is, I'm usually reading on it via either the Nook app or the Kindle one, most often the Nook one. But if the mood strikes, I like having the ability to watch something from Netflix, listen to something from Audible.com, or listen to an old time radio show (via an app I found just the other day).

My NC has become such an integral part of my daily routine that it'd be a real letdown to have to do without it. Here's what every day except Sunday looks like:

When I get out of bed (usually about 5:45 AM), I use the NC as a kind of low-intensity flashlight to gather up my stuff and head for the kitchen. Over coffee, I catch up on news from various sites worldwide, check the weather with an app, then head out for a morning meeting. Upon returning, I start oatmeal cooking for breakfast for my partner (who sleeps later) and me and browse some more until it's ready. I like Pulse too.

At my age (in my 60s), I take afternoon naps most days. The NC is great for letting me read a little until I'm ready to doze off - usually something from Project Gutenberg. Then at bedtime it's more reading 'til lights-out. When I get up during the night (you younger folks, just wait...) tapping the "n" button lets me know what time it is.

I've taken my NC with me to wait-a-while occasions like car oil changes. Sometimes I can connect to their wi-fi, sometimes I can't. But I've always got something to read or watch (lots of freely-distributable stuff at archive.org)

My first personal computer was in 1977, and I still have my old RCA REB-1100 ebook reader. Things have come a long, long way over the years. My NC - even at the full $250 earlier this year - is the handiest single device I've owned thus far. Money well spent

My habits aren't terribly consistent. Up until recently, the majority of my time on my CM7 NC was spent reading my EPUBs in Aldiko, until I migrated to Mantano which provides a great experience for both EPUBs and PDFs (and alerted me to the fact that I had 3-4 copies of most of my ebooks, allowing me to do some housecleaning, not that they hog much space). The last couple weeks, though, I've been reading more comics and manga in Perfect Viewer, followed by books, followed by browsing.

In decent weather, the NC also serves as my 'morning paper' on the porch, but lately I'm staying indoors and sticking with my PC. I do frequently save longer articles with Read It Later and pick them back up in DolphinHD on the NC, which does a good job of reflowing text into a very ebook-like format, without subtracting things like flash video or comments. I actually wanted to do a little writing on the road a bit ago, and ended up using Dropbox Text Editor with Thumbs keyboard--obviously it limits my top speed, but I'm not often maxing my WPM when I compose anyway, and it has the pro that I can pace while I type =D The text prediction saves at least half my keystrokes, too, which evens things out at least a bit.

Other than that...I monitor my Twitter feed almost exclusively on the NC, in the Pure Messenger widget, but still don't keep up with it daily. I do often play music while reading my comics, and sometimes use the NC for audiobooks on the road, but more often use my phone. I use the NC as a remote control for my PC in bed sometimes, via Team Viewer, usually to find my place in an audiobook if I nodded off and I don't want to light up the big monitor.

None of it is anything another Android tablet with a decent screen couldn't do as well or better, but the NC does have me covered for all of the above. The only thing I miss sometimes is a camera for scanning QR-code links from my PC, like I can do with my Android phone, but that's an infrequent frustration. Theoretically, that would also apply to scanning documents straight into my NC, but that hasn't come up once in six months.